The curriculum of any true Academic school in all times was always based on perfecting the skill of drawing, as a fundamental for strong painting. That would remain to be the goal of any Master painter throughout their professional career. As an excuse not to draw in front of a client, such artists may even try to undermine the importance of drawing, saying that to draw would be a low thing to do for their "professional level". In painting however, they may get away with those mistakes, as the color or "painterly" brush strokes can distract the viewer's eye from those mistakes. Why?. Because any weakness the artist may have in portraying proportions or tonal values or in the anatomy details, can easily be exposed in black & white drawing. Because of the popularity of photography and having no other comparison, the innocent viewer can comment about the strong realistic painting: “It is as good as a photograph!" It has been noticed that such a comment never occurs, if the person actually sits for the portrait, participates and experiences the whole portrait process, and realizes that there was no photography involved and the outstanding realistic likeness can be achieved directly from life with a free hand. That is exactly, what in the old days made people appreciate artists. The artist was recognized as somebody who could do something what nobody else could do! Of course today, the vision and meaning of art have changed, but the necessity of the skill required to create portraits in the best traditions of Classical Realism, remains constant and obvious.Īgain, these days you may hear from some artists: “I paint, but I would rather not draw.”. Through the harmony of tonal and color values it portrays the subject in the appropriate setting, where everything contributes to the individuality and character of the person, and nothing competes with it or detracts from it. The details on the Realistic portrait are not photographically copied, but portrayed selectively, providing the life-like and convincing image of the person. Of course, to be able to do so, the artist must possess a certain skill, which can only be acquired by the knowledge and the expertise of working from life. In the past several decades, with the boom of commercialism and drastic changes in Art education, when Drawing and Human Anatomy were completely erased from the curriculum of Fine Art programs, portraiture became something of a commercial venture, and quite often today it is nothing more, but a copy of a photograph, which does not require the Master knowledge, Creativity, Imagination or any in-depth Academic training. They exercised their Visual memory and applied their skills of working from life to create life-like convincing multi-figurative compositions and group portraits. Even when photography was already invented, the Artists still learned the Anatomy and the laws of Perspective. It has been known throughout generations of artists that, “if you knew how to draw the human form, particularly the human portrait, you could draw anything.” All academic studies were based on working with life-models, and the artists drew and painted only from life or from their imagination. Regardless of how they were done, the artist’s skill would have been looked at first. As the most perfect creation, the Human Form was the main focus of studies at the old Academies. Portrait artists generally work for themselves, but photographers can find work with portrait companies.Artists have painted portraits for centuries, often for commission, and often not. You must have above average skills in your discipline, but formal education is not required. However, if you instead work to sell your pieces in fine art galleries, you may have complete creative control. Your responsibility is to cater to their needs and produce a portrait the client is happy with, as opposed to focusing on your artistic expression. As a commissioned portrait artist, your duties include meeting with the client to discuss their desires for the portrait and having them sit for a painting or photograph. You either work as an artist that sells your pieces in galleries, or a commissioned portrait artist that works for a client. A portrait artist is a professional artist who specializes in creating paintings or taking photographs of a person or group of people.
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